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31
Joel L. Fleishman
35 Self- Interest and
Political Integrity,” in
Joel L. Fleishman, Lance
Liebman, Mark H. Moore,
eds. Public Duties: The
Moral Obligations of
Government Officials
( Cambridge, MA and
London: Harvard Univer-sity
Press, 1981), p. 88
New England and the rest of the nation. Because of its small size and intimacy, it
was able to fulfill the common interest even as the intimacy it afforded its partici-pants
was successful in inducing the subordination of individual wants to the good
of the whole. It still works reasonably well at the local level all over this country,
but at the state and national levels, which are at a considerable remove from the
influence of people who know and are known by other people, our democracy is
hard- pressed to transform and subordinate individual and group desires into what
is good for the state or nation as a whole. By means of computer- assisted organiza-tional
power, self- interest, over and over again, is able to trump the common good,
to freeze public policy discourse and resolution into gridlock, and to frustrate the
evolution of national and state policies into those that are more equitable, more
just, and fairer.
“ Once the psychology of self- interest comes to pervade a politi-cal
Ocommunity, the delicate fabric of trust and respect, in which
a government and its citizens are woven together, begins to fray.
Without that trust, citizens have no reason to allow themselves to be
persuaded by their elected leaders of the wisdom of particular poli-cies,
especially those requiring sacrifices by the public. Without that
trust, the bonds of community are shattered. Without that trust, our
politics becomes more a war of all against all.” 35
That very same self- interest has increasingly corroded basic values and institutions
in America. It is urgent that we tackle the forces that are at work in the society
that tend to undermine support not only for government but for all the institutions
Self- Interest Undermining Public Trust
in the Basic Institutions in American Society

31
Joel L. Fleishman
35 Self- Interest and
Political Integrity,” in
Joel L. Fleishman, Lance
Liebman, Mark H. Moore,
eds. Public Duties: The
Moral Obligations of
Government Officials
( Cambridge, MA and
London: Harvard Univer-sity
Press, 1981), p. 88
New England and the rest of the nation. Because of its small size and intimacy, it
was able to fulfill the common interest even as the intimacy it afforded its partici-pants
was successful in inducing the subordination of individual wants to the good
of the whole. It still works reasonably well at the local level all over this country,
but at the state and national levels, which are at a considerable remove from the
influence of people who know and are known by other people, our democracy is
hard- pressed to transform and subordinate individual and group desires into what
is good for the state or nation as a whole. By means of computer- assisted organiza-tional
power, self- interest, over and over again, is able to trump the common good,
to freeze public policy discourse and resolution into gridlock, and to frustrate the
evolution of national and state policies into those that are more equitable, more
just, and fairer.
“ Once the psychology of self- interest comes to pervade a politi-cal
Ocommunity, the delicate fabric of trust and respect, in which
a government and its citizens are woven together, begins to fray.
Without that trust, citizens have no reason to allow themselves to be
persuaded by their elected leaders of the wisdom of particular poli-cies,
especially those requiring sacrifices by the public. Without that
trust, the bonds of community are shattered. Without that trust, our
politics becomes more a war of all against all.” 35
That very same self- interest has increasingly corroded basic values and institutions
in America. It is urgent that we tackle the forces that are at work in the society
that tend to undermine support not only for government but for all the institutions
Self- Interest Undermining Public Trust
in the Basic Institutions in American Society